Privacy Policy

Last updated

The short version

We measure visits with Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, and work with hotel booking partners. In the EEA, the UK, Switzerland, and China, none of that runs at all. Elsewhere it loads after the page does, and "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page turns it off. We never sell your data.

On this page 9 sections

Who we are

This site is run by Bernie And Cream, LLC, 6650 Rivers Ave Suite 100, Charleston, SC 29406, United States. You can reach us about anything on this page through our contact page.

What we collect

You don't need an account to read anything here.

  • From every visit: our hosting provider, Cloudflare, handles every request and keeps a standard record of it (your IP address, the page you asked for, your browser, and the time) for security and to give us total visitor numbers. We don't use it to identify you.
  • Analytics, where it's on for you (see "Where you are"): through Google Analytics, which pages you viewed and for how long, roughly where you are (from your IP address), your device and browser, and how fast the pages loaded for you; through Microsoft Clarity, how you use a page: where you click, scroll, and pause.
  • If you use the contact form: your name, email address, and message.
  • If you join the newsletter: your email address.

We don't sell your personal information.

Where you are

What loads depends on where you are, because the law does:

  • In the EEA, the UK, Switzerland, and China, the law asks websites to get your consent before analytics and partner cookies. We don't use any of them there: no Google Analytics, no Microsoft Clarity, no partner tools, so there's no banner and nothing to accept. Your browser asks no other company for anything while you read: a map, a hotel map, a video, or a social media post loads only if you press its button.
  • Everywhere else, the law asks for this notice and a way to say no. Those services load once the page has finished loading, and "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page turns them off.

We tell where you are from your IP address, through Cloudflare, once per visit. If we can't tell, we treat you as being in the first group.

Two partner tools load only if you accept cookies in "Cookie settings", and never in the first group: Stay22's and TravelPayouts' link tools (see "Services we use").

Do Not Track: we don't respond to browsers' "Do Not Track" signal; "Cookie settings" is how you switch these services off here. When Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, or a partner's tool loads, that company can collect information about your visits over time and across other websites that use it.

Stored on your device

This site keeps a few small values in your browser. None of them is sent to us:

  • bc_cookie_consent: your choice in the banner or in "Cookie settings", so we don't ask on every page. Kept for 12 months, and we ask again sooner if we add something that needs it.
  • bc_region: your country, as Cloudflare reports it, for this visit only, so we look it up once. It's gone when you close the tab.
  • bc_lang_pref: if an article comes in more than one language, the one you picked, or that you dismissed the suggestion. We never switch language for you.
  • bc_theme: light or dark, if you use the switch in the header.
  • bc_notrack: only if you open a page with ?notrack in the address. It stops your visits being counted.

The services below set their own cookies when they load.

Services we use

Google Analytics (visitor numbers and page speed). Loads by the rule in "Where you are". Google keeps this data for 14 months. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Microsoft Clarity (heatmaps and session recordings, so we can see which parts of a page people use). Loads by the same rule. Anything you type into a form is hidden from recordings by Clarity itself. Microsoft keeps recordings for 30 days and heatmaps for 13 months. See the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

Kit (the newsletter). If you sign up, Kit stores your email address so we can send our emails and see which ones are opened and clicked. We keep it until you unsubscribe, which every email lets you do. See Kit's privacy policy.

Web3Forms (the contact form). Delivers your message to our inbox and doesn't use it for anything else. We keep messages as long as we need them to reply; ask us to delete yours at any time. See Web3Forms' privacy policy.

YouTube (videos). A video here is a still picture, kept on our own site, until you press play. Only then does YouTube's player load, in its privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com). Our channel's photo is kept on our own site too.

Google Maps (maps of the places we write about). A map loads by the same rule, once you're near it, or straight away wherever you are if you press its "Show the map" button. Until then it's a box with an "Open in Google Maps" link. See Google's privacy policy.

Stay22 and TravelPayouts (hotel and activity booking). A hotel map in an article loads by the same rule, once you're near it, or straight away wherever you are if you press its "Show the map" button. A partner's map or list runs that partner's own code, which can include its own analytics. Their link tools, which turn mentions of hotels and activities into booking links, load only if you accept cookies in "Cookie settings". See Stay22's privacy policy and TravelPayouts' privacy policy.

Social media posts. A post from Instagram, TikTok, or another platform shown in an article loads by the same rule, or wherever you are if you press its button; until then it's a link.

Google "Preferred Sources" (the button in our footer). Loads by the same rule. Pressing it tells Google you'd like to see more of this site in Search; it doesn't tell us anything about you. See Google's page on preferred sources.

We don't show ads at the moment.

Some links are affiliate links: if you book or buy through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Our affiliate disclosure has the details. Following one takes you to that company's site, where its own cookies and privacy policy apply.

Your rights

In the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, data protection law (the GDPR, and the UK and Swiss equivalents) gives you the right to:

  • get a copy of the personal data we hold about you, and have it corrected or deleted
  • object to or restrict how we use it, and receive it in a portable format
  • withdraw your consent at any time (for the newsletter, by unsubscribing), which doesn't affect what happened before
  • complain to your data protection authority

We answer your messages because you asked us to, and send the newsletter because you signed up for it. Ask us through the contact page.

Children

This site isn't aimed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their personal information.

Changes

When this policy changes, the date at the top changes too.